NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - Robert Pickton's younger brother remains a suspect in the ongoing investigation into missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Pickton's trial was told Thursday.

Although Robert Pickton has been charged with the deaths of 26 women and is currently on trial for six murders, 39 names remain on an official police list of women who have been declared missing.

That investigation is still active.

"Police are continuing to investigate the possibility that David Francis Pickton was involved in the disappearance of some of the missing women who have been the focus of the Missing Women's Task Force, yes?'' defence lawyer Adrian Brooks asked.

"Yes,'' Vancouver police Det. Const. Mike McDonald quietly replied.

David Pickton is commonly known as Dave.

In an interview Thursday night, Dave Pickton said he had not heard about the testimony Thursday in court, but was not surprised that an officer told the jury he is still under investigation.

His name has come up a number of times in the six weeks since the trial of his brother began, but he is not worried.

"It doesn't bother me. It's obviously a big case so why shouldn't (my name) be mentioned. If they didn't mention my name I thought that would be awful weird. I own part of the property, too.

He said his workshop "is only a hundred feet away from his (Robert Pickton's) working area. So it makes sense.''

Police detective McDonald said his most recent involvement with the investigation into Dave Pickton was "in relation to a lady that we are not talking about here,'' he told the jury, but he agreed that it was with respect to a missing woman.

McDonald agreed that part of his role into the investigation of Dave was interviewing people, taking statements and conducting surveillance.

The jurors had heard earlier this week that an RCMP officer involved in the investigation considered Dave to be the "brains of the two of them.''

Sgt. Tim Sleigh had described Dave as protective but condescending and said Robert deferred questions to him.

Brooks did not question McDonald any further on the investigation into Dave on Thursday, though he pressed him for information on which other police officers were involved.

McDonald explained that officers are given a multitude of tasks and there would be no officers whose sole job would be to investigate Dave.

McDonald ultimately seized 800 exhibits during the massive investigation into the search of Robert Pickton's home, as well as other buildings on the property owned by both brothers.

On Thursday, jurors heard about 38 pieces of ammunition found in a sump hole in the slaughterhouse.

Among them were unexpended .22-calibre bullets, shell casings and blanks.

He also found eight pieces of used chewing gum that was later tested for DNA.

A phone bill was also seized from a pile of debris. The name on the bill matched that of a man whose fingerprints were found on a ice tea can in Pickton's trailer.

McDonald was repeatedly grilled by the defence on the method and manner by which he seized and identified exhibits.

He admitted that in at least one instance, an exhibit was moved before it was photographed.

He also agreed there were discrepancies between two photographs of the same piece of evidence.

Brooks brandished pictures numbered 84 and 85 of a leg of a pig carcass and asked McDonald if he noticed that in one picture the leg appeared broken while in the other it didn't.

"Eighty-four doesn't have any pig or portion of pig leg hanging off by a portion of flesh, does it?'' Brooks asked. "Eighty-five does.''

"I would agree,'' McDonald answered.

Brooks said the carcass was destroyed on site by police.

As standard practice in criminal cases, jurors heard, officers are required to keep detailed notebooks that chronicle each step they take in an investigation.

McDonald testified he kept such notes and would eventually transcribe them into the Evidence and Reports Case Management system, a computerized database police used to keep track of the thousands of elements of the investigation into the deaths of the women.

But Brooks alleged that McDonald would often take weeks between tasks before entering the notes into the database -- and sometimes didn't take notes at all.

"There were occasions for example, you spent an entire day, a couple of days . . . that you in your capacity as an investigator with the Missing Women's Task Force were involved with performing some task and in fact your notebook is absolutely silent about what you were doing,'' Brooks said.

"Absolutely,'' McDonald replied.

McDonald said he could speculate on the nature of notes that weren't taken, saying they could be days he spent reviewing files and not necessarily doing something that was important to the file.

McDonald is expected to remain on the stand when the jury returns to court Monday to begin the seventh week of the trial.

The judge told jurors Thursday that as a result of certain developments in the case he would be giving them a week off in mid-March in order to give the lawyers a chance to make some legal arguments.